Rep. Burgess Owens proposed a bill that would prohibit college accreditors from requiring college professors to include topics like diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical race theory.
The Accreditation for College Excellence, ACE, Act would push accreditors to not require, encourage, or coerce a college to follow partisan political beliefs. In fact, the bill would curb accreditors from assessing an institution’s commitment to a specific political ideology for federal financial aid funding. The ACE Act, which passed the House in a 213-201 vote, would also protect a college’s right to freedom of speech as well as religious freedom.
“We’re not going to support anti-American Marxist ideologies, like DEI and CRT,” Owens, R-Utah, said. “We need to get back to basics.”
What inspired Rep. Owens to propose the ACE Act?
Owens said he didn’t know about this issue until after he visited a Junior High School in Florida about two years ago, where a staff member said that to get accredited, the teachers had to incorporate DEI-related learning in their curriculum.